Chapter 29 – Braelyn
brAELYN
We didn’t end up staying the extra two days. The resort felt tainted. Anytime we left our villa, we were paranoid, always looking over our shoulder and keeping our heads down, fearful of being photographed.
Boston won’t be better. If anything, it’ll be worse, but it somehow feels better than being here.
Roman finished up everything he had to do in the restaurant yesterday and this morning, one day after our marriage made headlines, we left for the airport, but instead of flying home commercially, Roman had the Fritz jet come pick us up.
I didn’t argue it. Everything has spiraled out of control.
Adam and I used to be photographed, especially when we first started dating.
We’d go to a charity dinner or out on a date and inevitably, our faces would end up somewhere online.
It was annoying, but it wasn’t that big of a deal and it fizzled out quickly.
Even when we got engaged, there was some press with it, but not a ton.
Boston isn’t like New York or LA with that and I’m not a celebrity.
I’m a normal girl who happens to have wealthy and famous friends.
But as the Boston skyline grows bigger out of the oval windows, I have a feeling this will be different.
Thus far, the press hasn’t been all that flattering about me and neither have the comments.
It’s been painted to look like I left Adam and ran off with his best friend.
Adam’s infidelity hits at like the second paragraph of whatever snippet article, if it even shows up at all.
It’s all reading as if I were going behind Adam’s back and not the other way around.
So now I’m the bad guy.
The harlot who broke a devastated billionaire’s heart to chase another’s. The woman who metaphorically left one guy at the altar so I could marry another.
I’m trying not to care. I truly am. I’m also trying not to go on any social media. But it’s eating at me. The lies being spread. The hateful comments by strangers.
Roman hasn’t said much since we left the resort. He’s been on his phone a lot, texting and occasionally getting up to go to the bedroom in the back to make a phone call he doesn’t want me to hear. There is nothing more isolating than becoming the center of attention.
I have no home. No sanctuary. I’m staying with Roman, and I want to be with him, but now everything feels tainted. Like it’s falling apart before it could even start.
Typically, I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl, but right now, that glass feels empty.
I feel empty. I just want to crawl under the sheets until all this blows over.
It’ll make going back to work hell. It’ll make simply trying to be with Roman hell.
How can a relationship start and build when it’s under a microscope? When everyone wants us to fail?
Ugh.
Roman takes the seat beside me and buckles up as we get ready to land. His hand meets my thigh, but my focus stays out the window.
“There’s press outside my building,” he says quietly, his words carrying just loud enough to be heard over the hum of the engine.
“Lovely.”
“Adam has also come out as the tearful ex, making a statement about how he’s brokenhearted by everything and loves you and feels endlessly betrayed by our actions.”
My eyes close. “What an asshole. Let me guess, he never mentioned Corporate Barbie.”
“No.”
I bluster out an annoyed breath and shake my head.
“You know, in all the years I’ve known Adam, never did I ever think he was capable of anything like this.
The cheating and lying and manipulation.
The morning of the day I caught him, if you had asked me if he’d do any of this, I would have sworn under oath that he wouldn’t. ”
“I never saw this coming with him either. Anytime we ever spoke about you, it was always him telling me how he couldn’t wait to get married and how much he loved you.
Despite how I feel about you, it’s honestly why I had so much guilt other than the fact that he is—was—my friend.
People make mistakes and second chances are sometimes warranted, but not in this case. Not with him.”
“I just want to be a nurse.”
“I just want to be a chef.”
I rest the back of my head against his shoulder. “We can’t get a divorce now. It’ll look so bad and keep all of this in the press longer than it hopefully otherwise will be.”
He kisses my hair. “I don’t particularly want a divorce anyway. As far as I’m concerned, you and I are meant to be.”
“You’re the silver lining.”
“You might change your mind about that. The only reason people care about this is because I’m Roman Fritz.”
He’s right, of course. The press lining the front of his residence proves that.
Thankfully, the Fritz security team takes us into the underground garage of the building and we don’t have to wade through them.
The doors of his penthouse open and we drag our suitcases inside, but before I can even release a relieved breath, I’m practically body slammed by a pregnant woman.
“You’re here. You made it!” Skylar gives me a fierce hug. “This is so insane but thank you for taking the heat off my wedding to Aston.”
I cackle a bit at that. Skylar Fritz Davenport and Aston Hughes got into a marriage of convenience for a multitude of reasons.
But she’s a Fritz and he’s a Hughes—another big billionaire name in this city—and with that, their fake wedding made front-page headlines about a month or so ago.
It seems mine has now eclipsed all of that.
“Happy to help.”
She pulls back and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t stress it. We’re all here and we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Everyone’s here?”
Roman throws me a wink and we leave our suitcases in the foyer for the time being as we go and meet our people in his living room. Hayes, Quinn, Crew, Forest, Aston, and obviously Skylar are all set up with food and various types of drinks and even laptops set up. It’s like a UN summit but better.
Forest is on the phone, leaning against the glass wall with a serious expression on his face.
None of us asks a lot of questions about what Forest does for work.
He’s an attorney and for years worked for his mom’s stepdad in LA.
But he’s more than that, and his job out there consisted of more than that.
He doesn’t talk about it, but we know what he is.
A fixer.
I just don’t know how you fix this. Not when it’s already out of control like it is.
“Come sit and eat something,” Crew instructs around a mouthful of pizza as he points to another box. “We got your favorite.”
“Hot honey pepperoni with mushrooms?”
“Yep.”
I could cry. I almost do, and I don’t know what’s up with all these tears, but I’m so over it. Who cries over pizza?
I come and sit beside him and help myself to two huge slices even though I ate a little on the plane.
He pours me a glass of wine to go with it, and I think I’m going to be okay.
I have this. I have my people. Even Katy and Wren texted this morning to make sure I was okay and asked if I needed anything.
It would have been us here with Adam before.
That’s what’s still getting me. He wasn’t as close with everyone else as he was with Roman and me, but still.
He was part of us, and now he’s so removed, and I have to accept that.
People surprise you. Sometimes in the worst of ways.
That’s what Adam did, but watching Roman talk to Forest, noting the intense look on his face, I have to believe Roman will only surprise me in the best of ways.
“So… you and my guy?” Crew quips.
“I didn’t know you had a thing for Roman?”
His lips curl up into a sardonic smile. “Nice deflection, babe. I guess I can throw that back at you.”
I shrug as I take a bite of pizza. “I didn’t know I had one either.”
“But you do?” he persists. “Because Skylar told us she gave him the warning, but now it’s my turn to give it to you. He loves you. He’s ready to blow shit up for you. Don’t break his heart.”
I smile at my friend. “I won’t.”
He nudges me with his elbow and takes a bite of his slice. “This won’t hold,” he tells me. “You know that. Between Roman and Forest, they’ll handle it.”
“And that means Adam,” Hayes throws in, testing my reaction.
“I could just come out and tell the truth about it,” I suggest, and everyone pauses to look over at me.
“What? Do Fritzes and Central Square people never do that? I realize I’m on the outside of that and have the least public persona out of all of us but…
” I trail off, leaving it hanging at that.
I don’t exactly want to do that. I don’t want more attention on me or this.
Maybe it’s a dumb idea. But I can’t let my name or Roman’s be tarnished either.
Forest and Roman exchange glances.
“Who would we send it to?” Forest asks, considering this.
“I don’t care.” I take a sip of my wine and glance over at Skylar and Quinn, who are whispering to each other. “Who should I tell it to?”
“Intertainment,” Skylar suggests, and Quinn nods.
“They broke the story.” She agrees.
“Yes, but that’s a bit of a red herring,” Forest states.
“How so?” Hayes questions.
“I just got off the phone with my LA guy. They were fed the story from an anonymous source, except that the anonymous source created the email account using real information, and my guy was able to trace it.”
Roman looks like he’s going to murder someone when he says, “It’s Anne Sharpe.”
I scrunch my nose. “Who?” But something about that name is sticking to me, tickling a recessed part of my brain.
“She’s the TV person who came to me in Vegas about doing the show. She works for Boston Nine.”
I stare at him for a minute. “You never mentioned she worked for Adam’s company.”
He tosses his hands up but comes over and takes the seat on the other side of me. “We were having a really good night at the soft opening, and I didn’t want to bring any of that down by mentioning Adam. Plus, I knew I wasn’t going to do the show, so I didn’t think it was all that important.”
“Why would Adam send—”
“He didn’t,” he cuts me off. “She told me she wanted to lock me in for the show so she could pitch it to the higher-ups.”
My brows furrow. “Does she know about your friendship with Adam?”
He shakes his head bewilderedly. “No clue, and I didn’t say anything. All I told her was that I wasn’t interested. She emailed my people, and my people told her again that I wasn’t interested and that was that. Until this.”
I frown and look sightlessly across the room as I think this through. “She was in Vegas when we got married. So either she was following us or digging into you and came across our marriage license. Are you saying she followed us to Mexico?”
“It looks that way,” Forest states.
My hands cover my face, and I think and think and then… My hands drop to my lap and I look at Roman. “The woman Adam cheated on me with was blonde. I mean, I realize there are millions of blondes in this world, but…”
Forest comes over, working something on his phone before he hands it to me.
It’s a picture of her from the Boston Nine corporate site. Anne Sharpe. Again, there is something familiar about her that I can’t quite place.
“This is Adam’s Corporate Barbie.” I sigh bitterly.
“Nothing like trying to fuck your way to get what you want. She likely seduced Adam to get a show out of him, and that show was going to star his best friend. She must have thought it was a no-brainer and would make her career and when you said no, this was her retaliation.”
“Something like that,” Roman agrees.
“Fabulous. Can I out her publicly?”
“I wouldn’t do that with a vengeful woman especially when you don’t know all of her motives.” Skylar throws her hands up. “But that’s just me.”
“I agree,” Aston says, tucking Skylar in by his side. “You don’t want to provoke her into more action. What she did is already done. Focus on your story.”
“Let’s write the statement,” Hayes comes in, ever the CEO. “Then once you’re good with it, we’ll put it out there and see what happens.”